Earth waits collision with an asteroid Apophis

25/02/2013

Opened in Kitt Peak, Arizona in 2004 Apophis asteroid, which in 2029 and 2036. razminetsya safely to the Earth, the planet may face in 2068, although the probability that an event will occur is extremely low - only 2.3 per million. These are the details provided by specialists JPL NASA, the University of Hawaii and the University of Pisa.

"After studying all kinds of uncertainty related to changes in the orbit as a result of convergence in 2029, we have been able to identify so-called" keyhole "related to clashes during the approach in the future. In particular, we found the risk of an asteroid collision with Earth, the probability of which in 2068 above the one in a million ", - said in a paper prepared by a team from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, headed by David Farnokki.

Asteroid Apophis, the size of which is 325 meters, was opened in 2004. His discovery caused great excitement among scientists - their calculations showed that there is a probability of 2.7%, which in 2029 will encounter Apophis, named after the ancient Egyptian god of evil and destruction of the Earth. Later scientists have excluded such a threat, it is estimated that the asteroid 13 April 2029 will fly from the Earth at a distance of 37.6 million kilometers.